Economic Development

Together Baton Rouge Wins $2.9M from Exxon Mobil for Schools

After almost four years of political battle, leaders of Together Baton Rouge secured a momentous victory: the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board voted down Exxon Mobil’s request to receive a tax exemption through the Industrial Tax Exemption Program, resulting in $2.9 Million for public schools....

COPS/Metro Gets $15 /Hour Living Wage into San Antonio Draft Budget

....For the first time in city history, the lowest-paid municipal workers are set to begin earning $15 an hour — a major victory for COPS/Metro Alliance, which has been advocating for a living wage for several years.

NCLI Leads First Local Rejection of Industrial Tax Break in Louisiana

Fighting a four-front battle to better invest local public funds, Northern & Central Louisiana Interfaith (NCLI) leaders recently persuaded the Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator to become the first local official in state history to use the newly-granted local authority to reject an industrial tax exemption request.

This month, three more local entities – Caddo Parish, the City of Shreveport, and the Caddo Parish School Board – will vote on multi-million dollar tax exemption requests, one application at a time.

Power of Together Baton Rouge Recognized by Business Journal

With the ITEP issue, TBR—and the statewide network it has since helped grow, Together Louisiana—catapulted itself into a whole new realm, where big money, big business and politics converge.

Though the group continued to portray itself as a local organization intent on helping the community, it had picked a fight with the most powerful interests in the state. Those who had considered TBR little more than an annoyance suddenly realized it was a force with which to be reckoned. The gloves came off...

COPS/Metro Hikes Base Municipal Wage in San Antonio to $14.25 /Hour

Months after 750 COPS / Metro leaders challenged candidates for San Antonio City Council and the Bexar County Commissioners’ Court to support their living wage agenda in a nonpartisan accountability assembly — and then delivered 8,555 voters to the polls in support of their agenda — both Bexar County and the City of San Antonio increased entry wages to $14.25 per h

Almost ten years ago, Project QUEST agreed to participate in a randomized control trial in which half of a pool of 400+ qualified and equally motivated applicants were picked by a computer to participate in Project QUEST. The other half were turned away and they pursued other options.

Northern & Central LA Interfaith Launches ACTS to Combat Poverty

With Louisiana as the state with the third highest number of poor people, many of them working full-time, Northern & Central Louisiana Interfaith leaders are devising new ways to tackle poverty. Says Pastor Clayton Moore, “If you work, how is it that you’re poor?”

COPS / Metro Fights Battle to Raise Wages in San Antonio

Communities Organized for Public Service and the Metro Alliance, or COPS/Metro, one of the leading wage advocacy groups in San Antonio, started its living wage campaign about a year ago. The goal is to raise hourly wages for public workers to at least $14.91 — the average amount needed for a family four to stay off government assistance such as food stamps.